XXIII Olympic Winter Games

[Insomniac]

Does no one care about these? I find myself not paying any attention (I've watched less than 30 minutes so far), but I'm not sure if that's because of external factors. But given it's been going on for well over a week and there is still no thread here yet, maybe it's more than that. Thoughts? Theories?

[stroker]

I've had no interest in the Olympics since they left ABC. I didn't have much even then.

[Lux Interior]

I enjoy the skiing, especially the downhill.

[opinionated ow]

The Australian coverage has been crap. You get every run of anything "Xtreme" at least twice but very little of anything else unless there is an Australian in it. I saw the flying tomato's halfpipe about 25 times and his Australian rival probably 30.

There hasn't been a full race covered in biathlon or cross country at all. Plus Channel 7's talking heads are truly appalling. I'd even prefer Leigh Diffey

[WickerBill]

We have Diffey for the luge, skeleton, and bobsled events.


Our coverage, overall, is pretty good. I mean, we have Rebecca Lowe, the best studio host on the planet. But unless it's ski jumping, downhill, or speed skating, I lose interest in the winter games pretty quickly.

[nrc]

I've never been a big fan but I'd watch the events that the Mercans had interesting stories in. I think these days there are just too many other options to spend time watching sports that I'm not interested in for the human interest stories.

[Insomniac]

I didn't even check the schedule out, but I usually like to watch some curling, skiing, and snow boarding.

[TravelGal]

I'm glad you posted this Insomniac because I was thinking exactly the same thing: No thread on the Olympics???

We are glued to the tube in the evenings. Love sports in all forms but definitely fast forward through the 2 training runs of anything and everything. We can start about an hour and a half into the show and end up at the same time by 10 PM. The biathlon really fascinates me although the announcer is just terrible, IMHO. Funny to hear Leigh "my hair is on fire" Diffey but he does a good job of the bobsled, luge, skeleton, etc. Skating, of course, because I used to skate and ski jumping because I grew up with the US Olympic ski jumping team. Spent many a fozen-footed day at the base of a ski jump. :laugh::laugh:

[TravelGal]

HOCKEY! Women's, that is. Game was sort of a snoozer but the OT and shoot outs. HOLY JAMOLY. :thumbup:

Oh, and previously I forgot to mention how much I like short track, especially the relays. It's the closet to organized chaos I have ever seen. And then they award medals for it.

[opinionated ow]

Fails of the games: Snowboard Big Air (tedious). Slopestyle ski or board (even more tedious), NHL preventing the world's best athletes from competing (utter joke)

Top newish events: Alpine team event (exciting), Parallel Giant Slalom Snowboard, (in advance) Mass Start Speed Skating

[opinionated ow]

HOCKEY! Women's, that is. Game was sort of a snoozer but the OT and shoot outs. HOLY JAMOLY. :thumbup:

Oh, and previously I forgot to mention how much I like short track, especially the relays. It's the closet to organized chaos I have ever seen. And then they award medals for it.

Short track would be a great TV sport for a smallish series. Like T20 cricket or Rugby 7s

[Insomniac]

Alpine skiing seems kind of pointless. The men just knock down the flags. Add that to them wearing shin guards to also knock them down just seems dumb. It's like if it would be faster for hurdlers to just run through the hurdles. You don't want to injure the skiers, but there should be some penalty for knocking the flags down. You should be able to clip them, but if you're just bowling through them with everything but your skis, it's lame. Or get rid of the flags all together and just have much lower ones to mark the track.

[opinionated ow]

Alpine skiing seems kind of pointless. The men just knock down the flags. Add that to them wearing shin guards to also knock them down just seems dumb. It's like if it would be faster for hurdlers to just run through the hurdles. You don't want to injure the skiers, but there should be some penalty for knocking the flags down. You should be able to clip them, but if you're just bowling through them with everything but your skis, it's lame. Or get rid of the flags all together and just have much lower ones to mark the track.

I'd be all for the style of flag they use in snowboard slalom.